


To Please You

by otakusocial



Category: Naruto, Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuuutsu | The Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi
Genre: Best Friends, Developing Relationship, F/M, Falling In Love, Friendship, Growing Up, Puppy Love, Romantic Friendship, Time Skips
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2012-08-29
Updated: 2012-08-29
Packaged: 2017-11-13 03:16:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 14,462
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/498832
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/otakusocial/pseuds/otakusocial
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>They were perfect for each other: She wasn't normal and he wasn't normal; She loved dangerous adventure and he had healing abilities that could withstand the crazy adventures. At 6 years old Naruto found his soulmate, and of course it had to be a crazy one.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. First Intallment

**Author's Note:**

> I posted this story in fanfiction.net under the same username.
> 
> I wanted to see Naruto and Haruhi together — he doesn't seem to mind girls bossing him around, so why not give him Haruhi? It wont be a an immediate relationship… I don't know if it will be that apparent either, cause Naruto is a bit slow and Haruhi is a little stubborn.
> 
> ###### Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi.

...

— JUNE 5 —

…

Naruto watched silently as the children played with one another. He wanted to join in, but the parents were around… and the last time he had joined some of the children in the playground, a group of them had beaten him up. They were saying the same things as their parents.

Demon.

Evil.

Murderer.

He glared at the children playing below. Perched on a tree branch, Naruto was tempted to throw a few fruits their way, and hopefully injure a whole lot of them… but he wouldn't. He couldn't. He still hoped that one of them would change their mind and ask him to join in their games — that they would be kind and share with him some of their snacks and share some stories of their 'adventures'. So Naruto continued to sit on the branch, unmoving, unbending, just watching silently, and continued to hope.

"Hey! You there!"

Naruto looked down from the tree and saw a girl in a yellow sundress, white petals strewn sparsely on the skirt. She was waving at him, a plastic bucket and shovel held by the other hand.

"Come down and be useful!"

Naruto just stared blankly at the girl below him. Was she actually asking him to join her with her games? Could it be possible? He looked around and noticed that there were no other kids around her, that it was only her beneath his tree. "You want me to play with you?"

"You aren't busy, so I want you to help me." She was looking at him with her honey brown eyes, they were growing impatient as he just continued to sit on his branch unmoving — just staring at her. "So come on!"

"Ya!" I do — I really want to! Thank you! Naruto wanted to add, but he just settled with that one word and jumped down to the dirt ground below. He smiled at her widely after dusting off the dirt he gathered from the tree — he had to be presentable. "So what are we going to do?"

"Treasure!" She shoved the plastic bucket with the plastic shovel inside. She took a folded piece of paper from her dress pocket and unfolded it, showing him map of some sort. "I found this on my way to the park today—" She pointed on an area of the map that marked an X. "—and see this X over here? It has to be a treasure! And I want you to join me in this. You up for it?"

Naruto excitedly nodded at the little girl beside him. He had never played treasure hunt before. He had seen the other kids play this game, but they never had a treasure map, they just dug at areas in the sandbox, where they had buried some of their toys. Her treasure hunt game was definitely going to be more fun; she had a map, and it seemed to lead to areas outside of the playground. "I'm definitely up for this!"

"Okay, but first you need something." Haruhi dug into her pocket and took out a sticker. It was a standard yellow star sticker, with SOS written in the center of the star. She took the padding behind it and tacked it on his shirt. "There you go! Now you are part of the SOS Brigade!" She showed him her own sticker at the left breast pocket of her dress. "I have one too, but I am the leader." She indicated this with the crown that was set upon the top of her star sticker. "Captain Suzumiya Haruhi!"

Naruto saluted her with a wide grin on his face. "Captain Haruhi! Uzumaki Naruto reporting for duty!"

"Nice to meet you Soldier Naruto! Now we need to see where to head off to first." Haruhi laid the map on the ground beneath them, and studied it. The map was only composed of colors, like green, grey and brown, with a splattering of black dots, but Haruhi seemed to understand it — she pointed on the green areas of the map. "This has got to be the forest in Konoha, and the X is over here, which seem to be closest to the open fields used for training. So that means we have to cut through the training fields to get to the X. You got that Naruto?"

"Ah, I see." Naruto nodded his head and stood up from their crouched position on the ground.

Haruhi folded the treasure map and placed it in her pocket. She pointed towards the horizon (which Naruto knew to be the general area of the training fields) "Let's head out!"

"Yes Ma'am." Naruto saluted and followed Haruhi towards the training fields, plastic bucket and shovel in hand.

…

…

There was chaos.

The Third Hokage had called most of the active and available shinobi in the village to solve the problem. It was brought to the Hokage's attention earlier that someone had breached security and taken important items from the vault. Once the vault had been investigated, it was found out that at least two scrolls containing the jutsus that had been created by the first two Hokage's were taken. The seals on the vault had not been broken, so it meant that it was an undercover job, and their security had been breeched by either a traitor or a spy.

The scrolls had to be found. They were the jutsu's that the first and second Hokage had used to win the war and protected the village with. They were invaluable and would pose a threat if they were in the hands of the enemy.

"The scrolls of the First and Second Hokage's legacies had been stolen. It has just come to my attention today. There had been no breech of security when they were taken from the vault, so it is done through treason or there is a spy within the high ranks. I want you to scout all the areas of Konoha. Look for the culprit." Hokage took out the list of names that had been registered by him to enter the vault. "These are those who are under suspicion." The list was not lengthy, so it would be quick to search for them. "I want Ibiki and Yamanaka to interrogate them and look for that scroll."

The shinobi's left the grounds in search of the traitor.

…

…

Naruto looked around the forest. They have been in it for many hours and they still have not found an area marked with an X. Haruhi was just a few steps ahead of him, looking at the map, and then looking at her surroundings. There were no landmarks on the map, so Naruto doubted she knew exactly where she was heading… but he didn't complain.

At least not much. "Are we close Captain Haruhi?"

Haruhi looked around and then towards the map. "Hmm… we should be close by. We have been walking in a straight line through this forest. It doesn't show how many steps we need to go. But I know for sure we are heading in the right direction." She turned towards him her eyes serious. "Don't doubt your Captain, Soldier Naruto!"

Naruto quickly shook his head at her in a negative. "I only got faith in you Captain."

"Good, now pick up pace." Haruhi smiled widely at him in approval at his answer.

Naruto was following diligently behind her when his stomach growled. Haruhi turned towards him with a raised brow. He laughed nervously at her. "Sorry, Captain. Don't mind my stomach."

She stopped in her tracks to face him. She looked around their spot. It was a little clearing in the forest, a river bed below them. After a quick investigation she nodded her head. "We can stop here. A good captain takes care of her troops." She sat on a protruding root of a tree, and dug into her pockets. She took out a two granola bars, and handed him one. "This is for you."

Naruto took the offered granola bar. "Thank you."

She nodded to him and started eating her own granola bar. The running water from the river bed, and the crickets of the forest the only noise aside from their breathing and chewing. Naruto studied the forest and found it weird that there were nothing scary that they have encountered so far. It was fenced up and everything, so Naruto thought that it was because the village wanted to keep whatever was inside the forest, inside.

"Hey Captain Haruhi, did you know what the sign on the fence had said earlier?"

Haruhi looked towards him, her honey coloured eyes drawn in a question. "You can't read Naruto?"

Naruto blushed in embarrassment. He never had a chance to learn at the orphanage. The other kids were taught by the caretakers, but Naruto was kept apart from them, so he couldn't join in the learning. "No… no one… no one taught me how." He tightened his little hands into fists. What would his new friend think of him? Would she laugh at him and not want to be with him, because he's dumb? It wasn't his fault. They didn't want to help.

Haruhi studied him for a moment and Naruto had to draw his eyes away from her intense stare. "It said Forest of Death." She watched Naruto nod his head slowly, his eyes still downcast. She was a captain. He was her soldier. "I'll teach you." His head came up, his blue eyes looking at her in confusion. "I'll teach you." He was surprised. "You are my soldier, and I'm your captain. I'll teach you."

Naruto could count in one hand the times he had ever been this happy. The first time he had been begging for food, he was happy when the old man at Ichiraku ramen had offered him all the ramen he wanted — he had the best meal of his life. There was also a time when the Hokage had ordered him to his office, and Naruto had been so surprised when the Hokage had given him his goggles as a birthday present. It was worn and used… but Naruto didn't mind — the way the Hokage had handled it, it seemed like it was important to him, and meant a lot. The other time was when he met Haruhi, asking him to join her in this quest. Now she was teaching him to read.

He had to stop the tears from flowing, he knew it was sad of him, of the world, to have another child teach an orphan to read. But he would accept it with a grateful heart. His first friend. His first mentor. "You're the best Captain."

"Don't forget it!" Haruhi smiled at him, then rolled up the empty wrapper and put it in the plastic bucket. She mumbled something about not littering to him. "When we're done this treasure hunt, I'll teach you to read — I will also go and have a talk with your teacher. Not teaching a student to read; that's just bad practice."

"I don't go to school… at least not yet."

"Your parents then."

Haruhi noticed Naruto's face fall when she mentioned parents. "You an orphan?"

Naruto looked around before looking at her, his head was tilted down. "Ya… but it's not that bad…" He plastered a smile on his face. "I have other adults taking care of me."

"Then I'll go to the orphanage and make my complaint." Haruhi placed both her hands on his shoulders. "Cheer up. You've got a Captain now, and Captains look after their soldiers. I'll take care of you." Taking a hold of his hand, she started leading him through the forest. "Now let's find that treasure."

Naruto blushed as they continued walking along hand in hand. It was quiet nice. He never had a girl hold hands with him before. The only ones who ever hugged or held hands with him, showed him any gesture of comfort, had been the Hokage and the old man at the ramen stand. He watched her as she walked ahead of him, their hands still held — the forest trees had obscured the lights, but it seemed to have a spotlight on her, which helped them navigate their way through the dark forest. This was his very first friend. He was very happy.

He'll cherish her.

Naruto heard a loud buzzing sound moving around them — judging by the sound of it, it had to be some huge bug, monstrous in size. Forest of Death. That's what Haruhi had read from the sign. He nervously darted his eyes around them, watching for any movement among the trees. "Haruhi… do you think this forest is dangerous? It is called the Forest of Death."

Haruhi laughed. "Don't worry soldier. It's just a name. There is no danger in this forest."

"But there's a buzzi—" Naruto stopped in mid sentence, and listened for the buzzing that was circling them a while ago. There was no longer a sound. It was just crickets and the water stream.

"What were you going to say?" Haruhi looked at him, she didn't seemed concerned about being in the Forest of Death.

"Nothing." Naruto continued walking with her. If Haruhi wasn't afraid, he wouldn't be either.

…

…

The Third Hokage scanned the village with the use of his crystal ball. The telescope technique only allowed for him to watch within his village, so if the culprit had gone beyond the walls, there would be no hope for him to see where they had run off to. He first scanned the forest around the main city of the village, before moving on to the forest of death. He doubted that the culprit would have been able to escape unscathed through the forest, but as an escape route, though dangerous, was a good route to take — going through the Forest of Death would pose a dangerous feat for his shinobi's as well.

He noticed a light within the forest and focused on it.

"ANBU!"

In all his years as a Hokage, Sarutobi had never been heard to shout so angrily, that it reverberated throughout the tower.

…

…

"Soldier drop down!" Haruhi dropped to the ground and hid behind a protruding tree root. She looked over the root and investigated the grounds below. "Dammit!"

Naruto crawled on the ground till he was beside Haruhi. "What's wrong?" She signalled him to come closer to her. Naruto did so and scanned the grounds she was looking at. He observed two men in jounin uniform talking to each other. They both had scrolls in their hands.

"Those are jounin shinobi's of Konoha." Naruto watched the two converse with each other, and they seemed to be consulting a map. "Are they after the treasure?" Naruto highly doubted that. But to be in the spot where Haruhi and him were heading, made it seem plausible. But what would shinobi's want with a child's treasure?

Haruhi gave him a signal to be quiet as she crawled closer to the two shinobi, by travelling behind trees. Naruto followed her when she gave the signal and they both listened in on what the two were saying.

"You idiot! Where was the other map I gave you? It had the points of the tunnels under this damn forest." one jounin with black hair spoke angrily, "Now we have to fight through this damn forest to get out."

"I thought this was it. It was the only one in my pocket." The red head exclaimed as he started digging into his pocket, showing that there was not other map in his possession.

"Forget it, we have got to get out of this forest. There are dangerous creatures here and I would like to stay alive." He hoisted the scroll on his shoulder. "I went through all the trouble to get these scrolls from the Hokage vault, I would like to be able to spend the money I get from selling it."

Naruto and Haruhi looked at each other. These were enemy of the state, they needed to get out of here. Obviously the map that Haruhi found was never a treasure map. It was an escape route for the traitors. "We should go." Naruto said, tugging Haruhi away, they needed to get to safety.

Haruhi though was stubborn. She had a huge smile on her face. "What are you talking about soldier? We are the SOS Brigade! We are going to help our village!" Her honey brown eyes twinkled with excitement. "New mission: Recover important scroll documents!"

Naruto looked at her in disbelief. They were both just children. He hadn't even started shinobi training, and now he was asked to pick a fight with trained shinobi's — jounin? Sure he had been in fights, but that was civilians and he was still beaten up. Sure he could handle a few hits, but he was sure that these jounin's would kill him, and her. They stood no chance. He wouldn't let his friend be in danger.

"Are you going to leave me behind Soldier?" Haruhi's eyes looked at him intently. "Are you going to abandon your Captain?"

Naruto looked at her and then towards the two jounin below. From the two of them, he may have a better chance than her in putting up a fight. He couldn't abandon her either, he was pretty sure that if he left her and headed back to safety, that she would stay and fight and retrieve those scrolls herself.

I'm her soldier. She's the Captain. She's the girl. She's the damsel. "I'll fight for you." Naruto said with determination, he may be scraped up and end up in the hospital afterwards, but as long as its protecting her.

"Buck up, this is an exciting adventure." She smiled gleefully and started gathering some sticks and stones on the floor. She placed all the rocks inside the bucket. "We'll use these as our weapons." She then started to gather some fruits and berries around them.

"What are the food for?" Naruto asked, if he ever got hungry after the fight, he was pretty sure he would get it from an IV tube in the hospital.

"They said something about monsters in this forest," Haruhi continued to gather all types of food, like mushrooms and bugs. "Monsters usually come out when they are hungry and smell food — like those trolls under the bridge — but because we have no goats… I'm pretty sure that they would also eat some fruits and vegetables — like vegetarian trolls."

It was crazy. But at least it was a plan. "So you want to lure them here?" Naruto asked, he left her with gathering for the fruits and mushrooms, while he gathered the weapons — sticks and stones were nothing compared to kunai, but at least he could give them some damage.

"That's right." Haruhi grew satisfied with her gathered assortment of food. She looked at his pile of weapons and nodded in approval. "You ready soldier?"

"Wait." He took her gathered food and put them in his pockets. He had heard buzzing earlier, so if what she said was true, he didn't want the monsters to go to her. He cut off her protest when he took her goods away. "I'll do the luring and the fighting. You are the captain so you'll just give me orders from afar, okay?"

Haruhi looked at him, a pout on her face, but after much thought she saw the logic in it. Captains usually stood in the background and made the plans. "Okay, but I'll keep some stones here incase you're in trouble, I have to watch over my soldiers too you know."

Naruto nodded and looked towards the jounin and saw that they were still in the clearing planning on what they should do. He turned towards Haruhi, "So what's the plan?"

"Our first move would have to be crushing the fruits to release their juices, that way it would attract the monsters more. Then you would throw it at them, and wait for the monsters to arrive. Once the monsters are attacking the jounin, you will throw some rocks at them to do some damage." Haruhi explained.

"What if the monsters direct their attention to us? Humans are considered food too." Naruto asked her.

"Make fire with the sticks. They are afraid of fire." She saw the questioning look on his face. "You know how to make fire?" Haruhi received a negative from Naruto with the shake of his head. "Then I'll make a fire and if you want to escape the monsters, just head to me okay?"

"Alright." This was crazy. It was really insane of a plan. But he needed to stay, because she was staying. He needed to protect her — the village might even see his heroism after this… that is if this doesn't enforce the idiotism instead.

"Good luck soldier!"

Good luck indeed.

…

…

The Third Hokage rushed towards the Forest of Death. After scanning the forest, he had seen two children in the forest, one of them was definitely Naruto, accompanied with a little girl. He cursed at the ANBU that he had assigned to watch Naruto, how dare he take his eyes off of the boy and allow him to wander around in a forest filled with monsters. There was even a little girl. He had looked into law enforcement if there was any concerned parents that had come by looking for their daughter. There were no records of any such report, so the girl was still unknown.

He spread his chakra around the forest to scan for any other chakra signatures. He found them to be assigned in the middle of the forest — surrounded by monsters. He definitely would have to demote that ANBU to toilet and day care duty.

He gave a signal towards the group of shinobi following him. "They are up ahead in the center of the forest. They are currently surrounded by monsters. Circle and surround them. The children are to be kept safe."

…

…

Everything had gone according to Haruhi's plan. The moment he had thrown the fruits towards the jounin, the monsters had swarmed in afterwards. They had not paid any attention towards him or Haruhi, they followed only the scent of the fruit juices. Naruto quickly threw an arsenal of rocks towards the jounin, dealing his fair share of the damage along with the monsters.

What didn't go along with the plan was that one of the jounin had caught his location and was now leaving his comrade to fight the monsters alone. Naruto threw more rocks towards the jounin trying to hinder his trek.

"Demon!" The jounin made a grab for him, but Naruto ducked out of the way. "If we capture you as well, we can sell you for a hefty price. To have you as a weapon is a dream of most villages."

Naruto scrambled away from the man, once again escaping his grasp.

"Duck Naruto!" Haruhi's voice called out, and Naruto did as she said and an array of rocks were thrown at the jounin's face. Blood sprayed from his nose as it broke.

"Fuck!" The jounin looked to where Haruhi was and snarled. "You are next you little bitch!"

Naruto growled angrily at the man. How dare he talk that way to his friend. He delivered a kick towards his groin and sprayed dirt on the jounin's eyes. He was momentarily blinded and crouching on the ground. Naruto used this time to smash a rock on the guys head. It didn't do much damage but Naruto was pretty sure it should give him a headache.

"Monster in front of you, soldier!"

A familiar buzzing rang through his ears and the sound continued to grow. He looked up and saw a giant wasp monster flying towards him and the fallen jounin. He turned around and made a run for it, and spotted Haruhi with a stick of fire in her hand.

"Naruto run towards me!"

Following her orders he headed to where she was. She seemed to have found a little alcove within a huge tree trunk. She snuck inside and he followed soon afterwards. She set the fire in front of the entrance of alcove. "It should still be distracted by the jounin right now."

The adrenalin coursing through his veins faded and Naruto was now left alone with the fear. He had just engage combat with two jounin shinobi's and had called forth monsters. This was not something that regular 6-year-olds engage in, genin maybe, but not non-shinobi trained youngsters. This was definitely crazy.

He turned his attention towards Haruhi and saw that there was no fear in her eyes, just determination and joy. "What are you so amused about?" Naruto demanded, he was scared for his life here. "We just faced against jounins and now we are trapped in this alcove with just a fire to defend ourselves from the monsters."

Haruhi looked at him in the eyes. Her honey brown eyes never wavered. They still held the same determination and amusement, there was no fear at all. She grabbed a hold of his hand. "We are the SOS Brigade, I'm the Captain, and I've got you Naruto." She squeezed his hand. "You and me together, I'm pretty sure we'll make it out alive."

"We're just kids." She's crazy. First friend of his and he attracted a crazy person.

"We're a team!"

"We're not trained to go against jounin or monsters."

Her hand loosened around his. Maybe what he said finally got through.

"I chose you, I saw that you could do great things." She spoke softly, her hand let go of his. "I thought you and I could go to adventures. We would be the SOS Brigade and nothing will stand our way. I wanted to find adventure, and you were willing to go with me. I thought that was great." She paused and she curled herself up in her corner of the alcove. "My first friend and we had our first adventure. It seemed like a great start…"

First friend. He looked at her and couldn't believe that. How could a cute girl like her not have friends. Well… actually it did seem plausible. If she took her friends to these kinds of adventures, he was pretty sure any sane and normal kid would have refused the friendship immediately.

He wasn't normal.

She wasn't normal.

He had been in fights, he experienced hardships, he'd always been in the face of fear.

She wanted to look for adventure, and embark in dangerous and scary missions.

In this crazy world he lived in, Naruto knew they were meant to be. Six-years-old and he found a soulmate, an eccentric one, but still the same.

He took hold of her hand. "Your still my captain." Naruto saw her lips spread into a smile, "You may be crazy—" the smile quickly turned into a frown as Naruto continued, "—and into crazy adventures… but like you said, it's you and me." He squeezed her hand. "I think I'm the only one who can handle this insanity."

She looked at him seriously. "You are the only one. I tried with others. They didn't work out." She smiled widely at him and squeezed his hand back, "I'm glad I found you."

The intimate moment between them disappeared when they saw shadows moving on the other side of their fire. Naruto pushed Haruhi further into her corner and crouched in front of her. He held his hands out in a fighting stance that he had seen genin do.

He'll protect her.

He felt her grip on his shirt tighten, and his resolve grew.

…

…

The Third Hokage stood in front of the two youngsters in his office.

He had found them inside a tree, it wasn't hard to find because a flame was set in front of the opening. After removing the flame, he had been assaulted by Naruto with a kick in the face. The fight didn't last long, after Naruto recognized him. The brat didn't even ask for forgiveness, infact Naruto just went and ranted to him about scaring him. That was when he saw the young girl behind Naruto — it seemed the boy was protecting her from danger.

"Who gave you the crazy idea of going into the forest? It's called the Forest of Death, that should have already sent you a warning that it wasn't a playground."

Suzumiya Haruhi, the female friend of Naruto, was about to speak, but Naruto intervened. "We had a treasure map! We thought it was safe, seeing as we didn't see any sign, and if there was, you know I can't read Hokage!"

Sarutobi grumbled at that, it was true that Naruto was unable to read, and with the Shinobi Academy enrolling by the end of the summer, Naruto needed to learn quickly.

"Well the fence and locked gate should have been an indication that you'd be trespassing if you enter."

"The gate was open." Naruto had found it surprising as well, that someone would just leave a giant gate unlocked, but Haruhi was able to open it without any trouble, so he thought it was just some sort of divider of one forest into another.

"In either case you shouldn't have entered."

"If it was so dangerous old man, why didn't this 'guard' of mine — that you keep saying I have — not do anything about it huh?" Naruto looked at the Hokage defiantly.

"It's been dealt—"

Haruhi spoke up, cutting off the Hokage's tirade. "Why are you two arguing? Naruto and I just stopped traitor jounin from running away with your important scroll. We should've been celebrating by now! We're heroes!"

Naruto stopped his tirade and looked at the old man. "That's right! Where's my prize Hokage? I just kicked shinobi traitor butt!"

Sarutobi, rubbed his temples. Children. "Hmm… I thank you for your help." Naruto and Haruhi smiled at each other — if they stayed together, Sarutobi thought they would make a cute couple in the future. "But because you two risked your life by entering dangerous grounds — against the rules as you children are not shinobi — all you get are my verbal gratitude."

"That's it?" Naruto exclaimed in indignation.

"Well you broke rules, and instead of alerting me or the jounins, you fought them yourself. They would have escaped if you weren't so lucky." Sarutobi explained.

"That sucks." Naruto kicked his shoe on the floor. "We save the day and we only get a Thank You. Ridiculous. For all that trouble."

"The life of a hero isn't always grand." Haruhi patted Naruto on the shoulder, trying to comfort him. "It will be filled with hardships, but someday we'll get our medals… one day we will be truly heroes."

"Life of a hero sure is tough." Naruto said with his arms crossed across his chest.

"If you stick with me, we can do it together." Haruhi told him assuredly. "You with me soldier?"'

"Always Captain!" Naruto said with a wide smile.

Sarutobi watched the two children talk to each other. He was quite emotional at seeing Naruto being so happy with a playmate — not alone — but happy, smiling with a girl, was quite heart warming.


	2. Second Installment

…

— JULY 12 —

…

"Naruto!" Haruhi called from his living room. After it had sunk in her head the he was living by himself, she made a point to hang out at his house in her free time like it was a club house. "Bring out the orange soda I bought yesterday. It should be in the bottom shelf of your fridge."

She couldn't get it herself? "Okay," Naruto took two of the sodas, he was feeling a little thirsty. Heading to the living room, he saw that she brought a few more things from her home. He gestured to the stuffed white rabbit and brown teddy bear on the coffee table. "What are those for?"

"You didn't have anything cute to decorate in your house. So I brought some of my stuffed animals." Haruhi said matter-of-factly, she opened the soda can and took a sip. "Which reminds me, when's your birthday?"

That was really random, talking about decorative items lead to his birthday — that didn't have a connecting thought at all. "My birthday is October 10." He watched Haruhi nod at that thought and dashed towards his calendar. So that's where the thought came from. She shuffled through the pages and made a mark on the calendar on October 10.

"What you writing down?"

"Just a reminder for you to not make plans on that day."

There definitely wont be any plans made on that day. It was quite unsafe for him to even be seen by the villagers on that day, so he usually went into hiding. "Ah, okay. You got something planned?"

"I don't know yet, but I'll think something up when the day comes." She placed the pen down in a pen holder — another item she brought from her home to decorate his own. "Anyway, lets go do something fun today."

Naruto smiled brightly at her — it was always fun when he went out with Haruhi, no one ever bothered him when she was around. "Sure where do you want to go?"

"Well, I was thinking of going to the park."

Just the park? That was dull. "Why the park?"

"I was thinking we should go camping out there you know? And maybe watch some stars and like share ghost stories!" Haruhi said excitedly. "It would be great especially if we got some smores."

"That sounds a little dangerous."

"We'll be fine, the police force is on non-stop duty. It will reflect badly on them if they can't protect two kids."

That was true — and he does have the ANBU that the Hokage have assigned to him, but they weren't that reliable. He usually end up in the hospital even with them being on duty. He can't risk endangering Haruhi. "I still think it will be dangerous. They don't always get to stop crime." An annoyed look graced Haruhi's face — but with a month getting to know her, he knew how to calm her down. "I don't want you to get hurt." She liked to hear those kinds of things. It's all thanks to those girly stories she reads.

"Hmm…" Haruhi crossed her arms across her chest, a pout on her face. "I guess it is. And you haven't started your shinobi training, so your aren't much protection."

Did she forget the time they were in the Forest of Death? Naruto had to keep himself calm and not be too insulted.

"You want to sleep over at my house then? We have a big enough backyard—" The twinkle came back in Haruhi's eyes. "—we can camp out in my backyard. We can even stargaze from our rooftop, I always do that."

"That would be great!" Naruto was excited, he hadn't ever been to a sleep over. "But you gotta ask if your parents are okay with it."

"Nothing to worry about. They will be fine with it." She finished the rest of her soda and threw the can in the trash bin. "Let's head out."

"Where are we going?"

"We need to buy some items for camping." She took a glance around the apartment, "We'll need to buy some decorative items too."

"I just received my allowance so we can't spend a lot, I still need to make rent." Naruto hurriedly explained to her.

"Alright, alright." Haruhi said with a wave of her hand.

Atleast she could be reasoned with.

…

…

"Thanks for these drinks Mrs Suzumiya!" Naruto took the offered tray from Haruhi's mother. It contained two mugs of hot chocolate with marshmallows. His mouth was watering as he was smelling the aroma of the chocolate. He had never had chocolate before. He carefully carried the tray towards the balcony that was attached to Haruhi's room. "I got the hot chocolates Haruhi." Setting the tray on the wooden outdoor table, he noticed Haruhi looking through the telescope…. Aimed towards the neighbors houses and villagers.

"Haruhi, that's not stargazing…" Naruto looked around, hoping that no one was around to see her spying on anyone.

Haruhi never took her eyes out of the peep hole of the telescope. "It was so boring Naruto." She adjusted the angle of her telescope and spied another innocent and unsuspecting person, or family — he didn't know which, but there was a high probability of both. "The stars weren't doing anything. They were just lights in the sky that just stayed there." She swivelled the telescope swiftly towards the right. "I wanted to see some action."

"That's illegal." Naruto implored, but he was curious, he hadn't ever witnessed what a family did together.

"We're children. What are they going to do? They'll just think it was because we were curious, no harm done." Haruhi looked away from the telescope and turned her attention towards Naruto. She noticed that Naruto was standing close by towards and looking towards the general direction that she had been spying at. She smiled wickedly at him. "Did you want to have a look?"

Naruto shyly nodded. He had just moments ago talking about it being illegal, and there he was interested in spying on civilians. He witnessed Haruhi smile victoriously at him and pulled him towards the telescope. Observing people through dining room windows and their backyards wasn't very interesting, they just mingled together. If he was able to listen in, it would have been more interesting, but they didn't have the equipment to do so. "If only we could hear what they are saying." Naruto mumbled to Haruhi, which he heard Haruhi agree to.

Naruto moved the telescope in a different direction — as he had become bored at the previous hose — and started observing a very interesting house. It was a little old, and the house had vines that were crawling up the walls of the house, the front lawn had tall grasses and plenty of weeds growing. He manoeuvred the telescope to scale the observe the windows of the house. They were all dusty and there didn't seem to be any light at all in the house. It was pitch black. He imagined that if he were standing in front of the house, he would be creeped out — especially with the backyard seeming to look like it was a miniature forest of death.

"Creepy."

"What's creepy?" Haruhi piped up, intrigued. "I want to see."

Naruto had no choice but to give up the telescope, she had barged herself in between him and the peep hole — she was very determined. "It's just a spooky house, it looks like It hasn't been lived in for a while."

"An abandoned house," Haruhi whispered as she spied the windows. "I wonder what happened to the owners. Was there something wrong with the house that drove them away?"

"I doubt that is—" Naruto was cut off as Haruhi let out a delighted squeal beside him. "What is it?" His curiosity was peaked. He wanted to know what was so interesting about the house.

"I saw something." Her eyes was sparkling with excitement. "It was a white glow — it had moved across two windows so far."

"My turn, my turn!" Naruto grabbed for the telescope, which Haruhi had willingly given up. He searched the windows for the white light.

"Let's do something better."

If Naruto looked away from the telescope and observed Haruhi instead, he would have seen the mischievous smile on her face. Haruhi grabbed on Naruto's arm and started dragging him towards her room, then out of it.

"Where are we going?" Naruto asked trying to get his footing. He was also a little upset that he wasn't able to see the white light from the house — and from being dragged around.

"Change of plans." Haruhi she said as she grabbed a flashlight from the storage closet on the first floor. "We're going to that house!"

…

…

Haruhi looked around the front of the house, she had read in books and watched in television shows, that keys were usually hidden under potted plants, underneath welcome mats or placed over the door frame. Though that was sadly not true at the house they were currently trying to get in. She pouted her lips in annoyance and disappointed.

"Naruto!" Haruhi called out, her hands on her hips, face set in determination. "Bust this door open — I can't find a key."

Naruto looked around the house. He didn't really have qualms about breaking and entering seeing as there was nobody living in the house — from the looks of things, there didn't seem to be anyone who had lived in the house for a while. "You don't have to shout it!" He looked around towards the neighbouring houses — they may not have been giving him any problems, but he was sure if they knew what he was going to do, they would call everyone to beat him up. "I don't want the neighbours to know. This isn't really legal."

"Just do it, you idiot!" Haruhi tapped her foot as she watched Naruto pick at the locks.

Naruto twisted the door knob, and once the door opened, Haruhi barged through the house with no fear. He was quite surprised that she had charged in without any worries, especially with her earlier witness of a possible ghost. "Wait for me."

Flashlight in hand, Haruhi walked around the front foyer of the house, looking for any signs of supernatural activity. "Shut the door behind you, will ya! I don't want it to escape."

Naruto didn't comment about the fact that with no bodies and the ability to go through walls, that ghosts didn't need an open door to escape. He followed closely behind her, she was the only one with the flashlight. "Where are we heading exactly?"

"I don't expect the ghost to stay in one spot, so we gotta search each room starting from the bottom and work our way to the top." Haruhi flashed the light on the couches at the living room area. She made a 'shh' motion to Naruto and sneaked her way to behind the couch. Finding nothing she signalled for him to continue on with her through the room.

Nothing exciting happened in the first floor which consisted of four rooms: kitchen, dining room, living room and a half bathroom. Naruto didn't worry about the ghost — he hadn't seen the light, so he was still sceptical about Haruhi's assumption — and instead had preferred to investigate on what type of person use to live in the house. There were no pictures in the house, the fridge was cleaned out of food and the house seemed to be in good condition aside from the dust. The house seemed to be fully furnished, with white sheets covering each of the furniture. To him, it seemed that the owners had just moved out, so he doubted that there would be ghosts anywhere in the house — this was based on his belief that ghosts only came about due to tormented and tortured souls that were trapped in the plain of the living because they were brutally murdered. He read that somewhere in one of Haruhi's paranormal books; after he had learned to read, Haruhi changed their reading material to those of the paranormal — guess she moved on from her prince and princess phase.

Naruto couldn't deduce much of the person who used to live in the house, but from what he could tell of the wallpaper, paint, and furniture left behind, he concluded that a family had used to live in the house. On the second floor, the first room Haruhi and he had entered was decorated with a pink flower wallpaper and there was a dusty crib in one corner of the room, and a changing table on the opposite end. "A little girl used to live here." Naruto commented to Haruhi who was searching the closet with her flashlight.

"Why couldn't it be a boy?" Haruhi turned to face him, the light was flashed towards his face.

Naruto blocked the light with a hand. "Turn that thing away, your blinding me." The light left his face but was still aimed on his body. "And obviously it's a girl, there's flowers and pink everywhere."

"Well it could be possible, what if the parents wanted a girl so badly that they dressed the little boy up in girl clothes." Haruhi concluded, her face glowing with complete belief over her words.

"That's horrible!" Naruto shouted, terrified at the thought of being dressed up as a girl.

"Stop the shouting you idiot!" Haruhi huffed at him and quickly dashed out of the 'child' bedroom, heading towards the hallway and flashing the light down both corridor. "You scared the ghost away!"

Naruto looked at her incredulously. "There wasn't one in the first place!" he hadn't seen any trace of ghosts at all in the house.

Haruhi threw him an accusing look. "Like you know how to detect a ghost!"

"Of course I do. I read the same books you did — if a ghost is nearby I would have started feeling cold, and the hairs on my arms and behind my neck would stand with the static and energy of the ghost, then I would form clouds with my breath because the room would get cold." Naruto smiled triumphantly at Haruhi who seemed to look annoyed that he knew how to detect ghosts — she wanted to be the expert over anything.

"Well I felt the presence and I'm thinking you made it go into hiding with your loud mouth." Haruhi started walking down the hallway with determined strides. The light never was flashed towards the doors of the other bedrooms, she by passed them all until they were at the end of the hallway and facing a window.

"Why did we skip the other rooms?" Naruto looked towards Haruhi who was now studying the ceiling of the hallway.

"There are only two places that ghosts are definitely going to be when they are hiding; the basement and—" Haruhi flashed the light on a door that was on the ceiling, it was partially open and Naruto felt a funny feeling wash over his body. "—the attic." She flashed him a smile excitedly, then smugly at witnessing the uncertain look on Naruto's face. "You scared?"

Naruto shook his head. "I'm not." He couldn't be scared. He shouldn't be scared. He wouldn't be scared. He was going to be a shinobi soon, if he couldn't get through this, how was he going to face enemies scarier than ghost that could only haunt you? Haruhi smiled smugly at him. He had to protect Haruhi too. "I'm not scared. Now hurry up."

Haruhi brushed off his rude order. "I'm going up first."

Naruto had to boost Haruhi up with his intertwined hands because the drawstring of the attic door was too high for any of them to reach by themselves. It wasn't a tough ordeal because Haruhi was pretty light, but she had rudely ordered him to boost her up without even saying please, so he was a little miffed at that — it didn't last long though, because the attic door had opened down and a ladder lowered before them. The eerie feeling intensified. Naruto looked towards Haruhi who was looking at him with excitement on her face. Couldn't she feel that? "Haruhi, do you feel that?"

She grinned wildly at him, her eyes twinkling even more. "A ghost."

Haruhi climbed on the ladder quickly, making Naruto have to run after her — he needed to protect her from danger. The attic was dark, and surprisingly there was nothing that attacked them the moment they stepped foot in the attic. Naruto quickly scanned the attic, paying close attention to the shadows; Naruto knew very well that dangerous things came from shadows, it was said in fairytales and he lived it. Ghosts were humans before they became ghosts — Naruto deduced that they would use the same tactic they had during their time alive.

"Haruhi, don't wander too far from me." Naruto took hold of her wrist, as Haruhi made to explore deeper into the attic.

She threw him an annoyed look. "Are you scared? Are you going to make me run away?" Haruhi began to tug her arm away from his grip, but she couldn't budge his hold on her.

"No I'm not." She always did this — accuse him of being a coward when he was just trying to put some sense in her thick head. "I just don't want you to be too far from me. I'm the shinobi here aren't I?"

"You haven't even started class."

"Atleast I am registered to take the class, so I still am more equipped than you."

She narrowed her eyes at him and they were in a bit of a staring contest — which Naruto found ridiculous because they were in an attic with possible danger lurking in the dark corners of the space. Thankfully Haruhi gave up on winning the contest and relaxed under his hold. "Fine." Haruhi moved to stand beside him. "Don't turn coward on me."

"I won't." Naruto kept in step with her as they proceeded to march deeper into the attic. The flashlight was perusing the area ahead of them, but Naruto didn't bother to watch the areas that were lit, the darkness that were left behind was what he paid close attention to. He needed to keep his sight in the dark to get his eyes used to it, that way he could detect movement in them. He doubted there was a ghost, but there were other dangers — like rabid racoons or giant rats that were mutated by eating old cheese… or something that mutates them.

"There doesn't seem to be anything." Haruhi announced as they came to the tiny circular window. Haruhi took hold of the wooden handle that held the shutters of the window closed, opening it so she could see the village below. "I guess there was nothing here." She let out a disappointed sigh as she watched the road and houses in the quiet of the night.

Naruto didn't give up as quickly as Haruhi. There was something in the room with them, he wondered why she couldn't feel the eyes on them. He kept his gaze in the darkness in front of him — the moonlight from the open window was blocked by his back being against it. He couldn't admit it out loud, but he was feeling a bit of a coward, anytime he could have allowed the moonlight to shine on the darkness to reveal it — but at the same time he didn't want to see whatever it was and have it be real. Shinobi's weren't trained to fight ghosts… was there even a way to fight ghosts? Can a child do it?

A creaking of the floorboard rang throughout the attic.

Naruto felt a hand grip his hard, he was about to fight whatever took hold of his hand, but it was only Haruhi — she was scared. If he wasn't scared himself, he would have accused her of being a hypocrite; If he wasn't scared himself, he would have laughed at her face for being a coward; If he wasn't scared, he would have acted like any other boy he saw at the playground and called her out on being a girl — but he is scared, and the only thing he could, and should do, was push that fear away. Haruhi was scared and there was something in the darkness that was moving — he had to protect her.

Standing in front of Haruhi, he shielded her from the shadows. "Haruhi," She quivered behind him, her body was curled up — his body effectively shielding her form. "I want you to direct the light towards wherever the movement is coming from, okay?"

Haruhi tried to hide it, but he heard her frightened whimper. Naruto realized that he really hated it when she was scared. It wasn't her. It shouldn't ever be her.

"You understand, Haruhi?"

"Yes." Haruhi's grip tightened on his shirt, the flashlight was aimed towards the floor in front of him. The light was shaking on the floor, due to her trembling hand.

Naruto steadied her hand with his own. "Haruhi, don't be scared." He looked her in the eye. "You're stronger than this… and you've got me. I'll protect you." He gently squeezed her hand. The determination came back in her eyes. The fear was still there, but she would stay with him. She would face it along with him.

The wood creaked.

The flashlight followed.

It was everywhere, and it was no longer just the creak of the floorboards that they heard. There was a light chorus of crying behind the creaking of the wood. Haruhi had directed the light everywhere the noise came from, but they could never catch it. She had grown irritated and the light ceaselessly moved from left to right, covering as much ground as it could, as fast as it could — yet there was nothing.

The noise grew louder.

Was it getting closer? "Naruto." Haruhi's voice softly whispered in his ear. "Is it really a ghost?" She was scared. "How can we see it if it's a ghost?" She frantically moved the light to the right of them.

"No." Naruto followed darted his eyes around the room — he might be able to see it try to escape the light.

"Can shinobi's fight against a ghost?" Haruhi worried. "Can you fight a ghost? Can you harm a ghost?" She hasn't read anything about harming ghosts. There was only how to exorcise them, and they weren't really trained to be a holy monk or miko.

"It's not a ghost." Naruto backed away from the shadows, pushing Haruhi closer to the wall, her back to the window — open window. Naruto quickly moved towards the right, bringing Haruhi with him. They needed as much light as they can.

"Then why can't we see it — whatever it is that's making this noise?" Haruhi wrapped her one free arm around Naruto's waist. She wanted him close. Needed him close. "It's got to be a ghost." Her voice was asking him to deny it.

"It's not a ghost."

"How can you be sure?"

"You had just said it." Naruto pushed her closer towards the wall, away from the shadow in front of them. Why couldn't flashlights cover the whole room? "Ghosts don't have a solid body, how can they make the floors creak? It's not a ghost." He hoped she didn't remember spirits can possess.

Her arms squeezed tighter around his waist. "How can they make the floors creak." She whispered back. "You're right — they shouldn't be able to make noise." Haruhi grew a bit braver. It couldn't be a ghost. "They float."

Float.

Naruto realized his error. All this time, they were aiming the light directly in front of the, flashing areas at eyelevel and the floor. They never looked up. Not once had he, or Haruhi, ever looked up. The ceiling was made of wood — the ceiling can creak. They never looked up.

He grabbed hold of the flashlight and quickly aimed at the ceiling.

A shadow.

It was smiling.

It moved. It flapped. It had wings.

He was pushed back.

…

…

Haruhi pushed Naruto off of herself, she was suffocating being huddled for so long. "Get off me." She struggled beneath his hold, she didn't need protection anymore. She took the flashlight from him and aimed it towards the ceiling.

"Haruhi, don't get too close." Naruto held onto her hand, keeping her beside him.

"Bats." Haruhi studied the winged creatures that were hanging form the ceiling beams. "They are really big."

Naruto studied the creatures before him. It was wrong. That wasn't what he saw. He remembered a face, an empty face, smiling at him. He knew what bats looked like, and that thing he saw was not a bat. It was human like. "They can't be just bats."

He scanned the attic for the monster — there was no other way to describe it; it had no facial feature aside from the white, ever smiling, mouth. The rest of its form was just a shadow of a human. It was dangerous. That was all he knew and he needed to know where it was, and get them the hell out of the attic.

"It obviously were just bats Naruto. They must have created the noise while they adjusted their grip on the wood they are hanging from." Haruhi continued watching the bats, the flashlight aimed slightly to the right of them, to not disturb the slumbering creatures. "Wonder how they got here in the first place."

Naruto settled beside Haruhi, maybe she was right about it just being bats. He was in a state of panic and fear, the whole shadow creature could have just been his imagination. It had to just be an imagination. "We done here?" He dusted himself off as he stood up. "I don't like attics — and I need to drink that hot coco."

"Yeah, we're done." Haruhi quickly took the lead in front of him, walking towards the drop ladder. "Can't believe they were just bats." Haruhi muttered, she was slightly feeling a bit of a relief along with disappointment of the outcome of their adventure. Naruto wouldn't have been able to defend her if it was some monster — he would have been really hurt as well.

"I'm glad it's just bats… If it was anything else—" Like that monster, Naruto thought. "—Let's just get out of here."

"Maybe we can take a look in the telescope again and scout something better happening in the village." Haruhi exited the house quickly, an excited glimmer in her eyes, that Naruto began to decipher as trouble for him. She was standing by the front gate, her arm waving him over. "You idiot! Hurry it up! We've got a village to spy on."

"Don't announce that to the world." Naruto grumbled as he quickly locked the door behind him. He doubted he'd get any peace for the rest of the night.


	3. Third Installment

...

— July 22 —

...

Was there anything worse than this?

Naruto swatted away at the spider that decided to lower itself from the winged statue towering over them. Despite the fact that the statue was that of an angel it did nothing to the atmosphere — the graveyard was still as gloomy and creepy as it can be and the angel statue seemed to add to that. He turned to his right and noticed that Haruhi was still reading the tombstones lined in front of them — Naruto definitely needed to buy her new reading material if she resorted to reading gravestones.

"What are we doing here exactly?" Naruto looked over Haruhi's shoulder, wanting to see what the girl was so interested in.

Haruhi hushed at him like she could concentrate more in a graveyard without his yapping — how she can concentrate on a task surrounded by the dead and a creepy fog was beyond him. Why was there a fog anyway?

"I'm looking for someone."

What's the use with them dead? Unless she was planning something illegal — grave robbing was definitely something he didn't want to get into. "Are we going to be digging up graves?" Please let the answer be a no. N.O.

That question got him the look from Haruhi. "Are you an idiot?" She gestured to the graves surrounding them. "We aren't here to disturb any spirits."

Really? Haruhi not wanting to chase after spirits, looking for monsters — and if they weren't digging, that meant no treasure. "So what exactly are we doing here?" Although it was a relief to know they weren't doing anything too wild (aside from visiting a grave yard and looking for the dead) he would be a little disappointed if they were just reading grave stones.

Haruhi turned the flashlight towards her face, and with that devilish grin, successfully frightened Naruto — only slightly though, he was going to be a ninja and they don't get scared from lights on faces.

"SOS Brigade test of courage!" She looked sternly at him. "We are going to stay the night here in the grave yard — you better fight your fears and not run away!"

Okay. He didn't expect that but he brought it upon himself for wanting a bit of excitement. "Okay, but what's with looking for a dead person?"

The smile on her lips widened. "I heard some stories from the kids in my neighbourhood—"

Naruto felt a twinge in his chest from that revelation — if Haruhi had other friends would she leave him? He shook the doubts from his head. Haruhi was here with him and no one else — anyway, what sane and normal child would have the guts to hang out with Haruhi? He was pretty confident that he was the only one who could handle her. I mean, there weren't any other kids who decided to visit the graveyard to play. He was pretty sure that he would be the only one to hang out with her if she continued on with her belief that sleeping in graveyards and chasing after monsters and ghosts were fun.

"—that there is a man buried here that haunts this place looking for children."

Ghosts that were after children? Yeah. What great way to spend a Friday night. At least it could be considered training — can the ninja academy count these as missions and skill building credits? "And we want to find him why?"

"We're going to sleep beside it!" Haruhi had a wide grin on her face — it was bordering to maniacal really, with it splitting her face and her eyes gleaming.

Right. Of course. What better way to test courage than by sleeping beside a child kidnapper's grave. "Yes, right, very stupid of me to ask." Naruto whispered as he followed Haruhi weave through the grave markers.

They walked further into the graveyard heading closer to the woods. The part of the graveyard was not very well kept. There were tall grass and weeds everywhere, and the cool thick fog close to the ground had given it a more eerie ambiance, and the hooting of the owls was making a creepy soundtrack for their little adventure. Naruto looked around at the dark woodlands, he couldn't shake the feeling that someone was watching them.

"Found it!" Haruhi waved him over excitedly. "Fuji, Takaru."

Naruto inspected the stone, there wasn't really anything written aside from name and date of birth and death. There wasn't even a picture on it like the other tombstones had. If there was a haunting they wouldn't know it was Takaru until the ghost started stealing them away in the night.

"Stop gawking at the tombstone and help me out with this tent!" Haruhi was preparing their camp area close to the woodlands. The tombstone was still in their sight so if there were any ghost activities from it, they wouldn't miss it.

"So did those kids tell you what the ghost Takaru looked like?" Naruto turned his attention to Haruhi as he secured the last stand for the tent. "We would need to know what he looks like so we can spot him." Before he can grab us from our tent.

Haruhi furrowed her brows as she tried to recall the details. "The kids said that he was middle aged, with long hair in a ponytail and a scar from his left eye to his neck." Haruhi had looked a bit fearful, but it was quickly replaced by excitement — must be from her faulty sense of danger. "They say he got the scar when the child had turned the knife on him to escape from being eaten by Takaru."

"Is this for real?" Now he was a child eater? That couldn't be for real. Demons eating children yeah, but this guy was a human. The story must have been exaggerated to keep children in line — he had witnessed the many of the villagers using stories about monsters to keep children in line. Naruto kept his hurt at bay when he recalled stories about him being a monster, Haruhi was the only one who seemed to not hear that story... and he hoped she never would.

"All legends have to start from somewhere, so it has to have a bit of truth in it." Haruhi set up her sleeping bag on the right side of the tent.

Naruto looked outside of the tent towards the grave before drawing the opening to a close with the zipper. The tent window would be enough to keep their watch, he wasn't going to endure the cold nights of the graveyard — and he definitely did not want that fog to creep in. "Well, hopefully it's not all true. I don't really want to be dinner."

"Don't be a coward." Haruhi punched him on the shoulder, a challenging look on her face.

Seeing how the other events had gone down, he was pretty sure he will not be the only one scared through the night. Although, he was going to keep that little detail to himself — admitting to his own fear to a girl was just embarrassing (besides, he was going to get rid of that once he was trained as a shinobi) and telling Haruhi she was a coward was just suicidal.

"I'm not. I'm just being honest." He rubbed at his shoulder — sometimes Haruhi didn't know how much strength she can sometimes have in her punches. "If it's a ghost that preys on children and might eat them, then there isn't really anything I can do to protect us." Naruto knew it was hopeless to reason with Haruhi about health and safety — there might not be ghosts (not having seen a solid proof) but there were demons and psychotic people; children alone in a graveyard seemed like a big sign of 'Attack Me' to all the crazies out there.

"You are a shinobi, you can fight this thing — and you'll be facing more dangerous people in the future so don't wimp out from a ghost."

Naruto had to actually agree with her there — it was just six years ago that the village was terrorized by a fox demon. So he may possibly have to do these kind of things... But that would be when he was a trained shinobi. Not a little boy with no weapon or techniques to take down a ghost or demon or even a crazed homicidal man or woman.

"Well I still don't know how to keep a ghost at bay — I haven't started shinobi training you know."

"Don't worry so much. I'm your captain and I got that covered." Haruhi brought up a couple of sticks. "I think it said in one of those spiritual books that if you make a cross with this it should keep evil at bay."

Haruhi handed Naruto the sticks, which he looked at with a lot of scepticism and uncertainty. He'll just use these as weapons... a ghost would have to grab them to drag them away in the night, so he might be able to hit the ghosts with these—or themselves if they go through the ghosts. But it might be better to be unconscious than go through the horrors of being eaten by ghosts.

Haruhi made herself comfortable on the spot beside him and watched the scenery before them. If it were not in a cemetery and maybe there was a more pleasant atmosphere — like those bonfires and woodlands that didn't have ominous fogs and no dead people — it may have been a very fun camp out. But no. Haruhi had to ruin fun by adding danger to the mix to have excitement — she might not even know the concept of danger and just believe it to be a very adventurous time.

"So what do we do before then? I'm thinking the ghost will show up around midnight—" Naruto didn't mention that it was stupid for them to be at the graveyard as early as six at night or being at the graveyard in the first place. "—we'll need to do something fun before then."

"Ghost stories!" Haruhi spoke through a mouthful of potato chips — she should have brought her own instead of eating his stash. "You better make them good!"

Why did he have to do all the work? Naruto sighed as he racked his mind for a story that would suit Haruhi's taste... Or he could make it so scary that she wouldn't want to stay in the cemetery for very long, or even be back here again. He knew what people said about him, the stories of being a demon and monster — he didn't want to encourage those stories by visiting gravesites.

"Okay. If I tell this story, no interruptions—" He gave Haruhi a warning look as she had opened her mouth. "—No interruptions, or it will ruin the story."

"Fine." She huffed as she settled herself more comfortably on a sleeping bag across from him. "Just don't bore me to death."

Funny.

Naruto followed Haruhi's lead and had situated himself more comfortably in his own sleeping bag, ignoring the glare that Haruhi sent his way for taking too long to entertain her. He didn`t think that friendship was supposed to have such an unbalanced give and take relationship — well more give-give, Haruhi preferred to be have things done her way more often than not.

"One night..."Naruto began his story.

—everyone in the house was sleeping soundly. The parents were sleeping in their bedroom with the dog slumbering on its bed beside their own, and the little girl was sleeping in her own bedroom—dreaming of pleasant things.

"Is this a scary story?" Haruhi raised a brow at him in annoyance — really? She was the one annoyed?

Naruto glared at her. "Can you let me finish before you judge?"

Haruhi had graciously let him continue with a little nod of her head. If Naruto knew that he was just going to be in a graveyard sitting in a tent with Haruhi telling ghost stories, he would have just suggested watching horror movies in her attic or basement. If she wanted a bit of a scare, that would have been safer. At least they wouldn't be as cold; the chill in the air was freezing his bones.

"So she was dreaming of pleasant things..." Naruto continued

The girl's room was dark, having opted to try sleeping without her night light. The only light that the room was provided was from the full moon illuminating through the window. From within the shadows, the door slowly opened, the soft noise waking the girl in the bed.

Seeing the door opened she looked at it curiously. Were her parents awake and coming to check on her? Or was it her puppy? She waited for the door to open some more, but it stayed still. No other movement.

"Mom?" The girl whispered.

The door moved opened a bit more, but it wasn't enough for her mother to fit through, nor did she see her mother's face or her father. She sat up in her bed. "Mommy?"

A shuffle was heard throughout her room, like someone crawling.

She rubbed the sleep from her eyes smiling, it was just her puppy. Sitting up in her bed, she was about to call on her dog to hop onto the bed — but a strange shadowed silhouette had appeared instead.

Naruto felt a grip on his arm and noticed that Haruhi had scooted over to him while he was telling his story — in the process of squeezing the blood out of his arm with her death grip. "Scared?"

All he got was a punch.

Naruto chuckled to himself before resuming. "She stayed silent..."

—not wanting to make a noise and bring the attention of the strange creature that was at the foot of her bed. She crept further on her bed, her back drawn up against the headboard, with the blanket tucked close to her as a shield. She watched scared and anxious at the shadow. She suppressed a squeak as she heard and saw it shuffle along the foot of her bed. The shadow head bobbing up and down as it crawled from one side to the other in a lazy pace, the only noise being her breathing and the shuffling of the creature.

The little girl drew her feet close and almost cried when the noise she made had drawn the shadow's attention. She tucked back into the head board, closing her eyes, hoping it would ignore her — thinking she was asleep.

"That's stupid — she should have screamed for help!" Having Haruhi so close to him, Naruto was pretty sure his ear had been damaged with her voice so loud in her fear.

"She was scared — scared people end up frozen in fear." Naruto didn't want to remind her of the time where she was cowering behind him in the forest of death and that damn attic.

"Just continue already!"

Naruto was annoyed, but he couldn't concentrate on that much when there was a chill in the air. He rubbed at the back of his neck, the tiny hairs having risen from the chill — and he still had that feeling that someone was watching. Or maybe the graveyard was just creeping him out. He drew a blanket around him — stupid cemetery. "She slowly opened her eyes..."

—and the face was looking at her from the side of her bed. Her throat seized up. The shadow continued to look at her with its eerie white eyes. She didn't take her eyes off of it, not wanting to take miss its next move.

She jumped slightly in her bed when the creature had quickly moved its head, turning its attention to the right side of the room. She followed its gaze and all she could see was her bookshelf in shadow.

Haruhi's whimper interrupted the story again — for a person who wanted to be told a scary story, she interrupted a lot.

"Do you want to hear the story or not?"

Haruhi pinched him in the arm. "I do. So why'd you stop?"

Naruto just absently nodded his head, drawing the sheet around him and looked out the tent window. He couldn't shake the feeling of being watched — which was crazy because they were in a cemetery. Seeing no one in the gravesite, he drew his attention back to Haruhi. He may just be feeling the affect of his own story telling.

Pathetic really, getting scared of his made up story?

He'll keep that to himself. Don't want Haruhi to know.

"There was nothing wrong with the bookcase..."

—aside from her books there was nothing in the shelved that was out of the ordinary. She turned her attention back to the creature at the foot of the bed, and saw that it was still looking at the bookshelf. She looked at the bookcase, searching from one shelf to the next for anything that was strange.

There was nothing but shadow.

She caught site of a strange item on the shelf. She hadn't remembered having a ceramic figurine there — the shadow moved.

She followed the shadow in the shelf, and there it was. She saw the figure of a small human form in the shelf. It was a shadow body with pure white hands and white feet. She trailed her eyes upwards, creeping up the arms to the neck—

A white mask.

The face was smiling at her.

"The en—" Naruto received a hard punch on his shoulder. "What was that for?"

Haruhi glared at him — and in her slightly huddled and shaking form, she still looked intimidating. "That's for making a stupid story."

"If you're not scared, then let go of me." He shook his arm to loosen her grip on him — if she was going to punch him, there was no way that she was allowed to be close. "Go back to your side of the tent."

Haruhi didn't hesitate for long, and started crawling over to her side, huffing along the way — he was pretty sure she was cursing him under her breath. Naruto watched in amusement when he noticed she had drawn her sleeping bag a little closer to his.

So she was scared eh?

Naruto couldn't help the evil grin that drew up on his face. She was going to hate him, but he definitely won't stop him from pulling his little prank. Oh if he just had a camera. He drew a shaky hand up, pointing over her shoulder. "Ha-Haruhi, wh-what is that?"

Haruhi froze in her spot, not daring to look over her shoulder, her face expressing her panic—she was definitely going to kill him after this. "Naruto?"

Oh this was good. "Don't move." He whispered to her. "You don't want it to notice you."

She inched closer to him, but stopped when he gave her a look. "What is it?"

"Don't look behind you." Naruto was fighting very hard to get stop himself from laughing and ruining his entertainment. Haruhi was looking so scared it was beyond amusement. "Just don't move okay?" If being a shinobi didn't work out, he might have a chance at being an actor. He can attend those normal schools and participate in plays; it definitely should be something to think about.

Haruhi shivered in her spot, but didn't move an inch — which was really surprising because Haruhi had never followed what he said before. He was definitely going to make a note of it in his calendar.

"Na-Naruto."

Was it weird of him to find her scared voice cute? Amusing even?

"It's holding my leg."

He couldn't hold down a snicker, thank goodness he was able to make it sound like a cough or else he was sure that he was going to get more than a punch — but the girl had a very good imagination.

"Naruto! It has my leg." Tears were in her eyes. "I'm scared."

Haruhi was crying.

This wasn't funny anymore.

"Hey, nothing's got your leg." Naruto smiled at her. "I was making the whole thing up." Haruhi didn't stop crying — maybe he shouldn't have played this trick on her, no matter her brave front, she wasn't all that tough — she was a girl afterall.

"Naruto, it's got my leg."

"I told you I was making it up, nothing's got your leg." Naruto pointed at her leg, there was nothing there — just her and her sleeping bag. "I see nothing holding you — I was lying when I said something was behind you."

Her leg twitched. "Naruto!" Haruhi cried.

Naruto looked down at Haruhi's leg, there was no hand that he can see — but hearing her whimper, he needed to get rid of whatever it was that he made her believe. He assessed her leg again, there was nothing but shadow. He crawled over towards her, prepared to fight off whatever it was she thought had a grip of her damn leg.

Her leg twitched.

"Naruto!"

What was that? He looked closer at Haruhi's leg — something that was quite a challenge when Haruhi had ended up squeezing him in fear once he got close enough. But back to serious matter, there was something definitely strange going on. He started to usher her towards his sleeping bag, maybe getting her to move would have her stop believing that something was holding her damn leg.

As she started to crawl, he noticed that her right leg stayed where it was, just having it extended straight when they got to his side. "Don't be stupid Haruhi, move your leg. There's nothing there, just move it."

She muffled her tears, as she tugged on her leg. She was being stupid; just because his scary story had shadow monsters, didn't mean that the shadow on her damn leg was one. Maybe he should've told her at the beginning that the story was made up so she wouldn't be in this stupid encompassing fear that seemed to play tricks on her body.

Shadow.

Her leg had a shadow.

This was unreal.

He took hold of Haruhi's leg and pulled it, the leg didn't budge from its spot and she had squealed when the shadow had gripped tighter on her leg that he could see the suppression. The shadow grew larger and he started to make out the shape of a hand and an arm emerging from the dark.

"Don't look Haruhi."

It was just a story.

He made it up.

The shadow figure emerged until the head, neck and shoulders were out with one arm clearly having a solid grip on Haruhi's leg. The disfigured face of the figure was smiling at him — a scar from his eye to his neck and hair tied back, this was Fuji, Takaru. The man smiled at him and pulled on Harurhi's leg.

Haruhi screamed in his arms as he tried to prevent her from being pulled into the shadows. "Naruto!" She gripped tighter around his torso.

Takaru was here to take his best friend away. He adjusted his grip on Haruhi and leaned back — he wasn't going to get her. "Don't look Haruhi." Naruto whispered as hugged her closer. "Whatever you do just don't look okay?"

Takaru sank deeper into the shadow pulling Haruhi along with him — her leg was already knee deep into the shadows. Naruto looked around frantically, he needed something to hold onto so they wouldn't be pulled in — but they were in a damn tent, there was nothing but tent to hold onto and that wasn't much for leverage.

Both of Takaru's hand was now on Haruhi's leg, and they were inching up as he drew her deeper into the shadow.

"Let go!" Naruto kicked at the hands — it wasn't effective in loosening its grip but now he knew that he could physically harm it. He kicked frantically at the hands, but it wasn't affected by the pain and with all his kicking, he wasn't able to pull back and Haruhi had been drawn deeper — both her legs were in.

Takaru's eyes peaked out from the dark floor, his body having immersed itself back into the shadows aside from his arms and head. "She's mine."

Haruhi looked up at him, her tears clouding her eyes. "Don't let him take me."

He felt so useless. This was why he didn't like doing these things, didn't want to partake in these dangerous adventures. Haruhi had a penchant for attracting a lot of trouble and danger that he had no way to stop it. This wasn't the fake ghost in the attic (this wasn't some overgrown bat) and there was no traitor jounin that would attract the Hokage to this location. No one was going to help them out this time.

And why the hell was some stupid superstition for children real in the first place? Isn't it supposed to be some crock parents make up to scare their children to behave?

"Don't let it take me."

"I won't let him take you." I don't want them to take you away. Naruto gripped harder but Haruhi kept slipping away from him — and she knew it.

"Naruto, don't let him take me!" Haruhi was pleading, her tiny hands gripping at his clothes at his arms at the sleeping bag — anything, anything that will keep her from sinking into the dark.

I'm not strong enough.

I'm just a kid.

I'm going to lose Haruhi.

He was going to lose his friend. He was going to be all alone again. He won't have someone visiting his place and decorating his house with girly things. He wasn't going to have someone dragging him around town making him spend money on books about princes and damsels. He wasn't going to have someone buy him presents — even if it was occasionally bought with his own money. He wasn't going to have someone to go on dangerous adventures with.

He couldn't lose Haruhi.

He wasn't going to lose Haruhi.

There was no way he was going to lose Haruhi.

Naruto and Haruhi, that's the way it should and would be.

"She's mine!" Naruto heaved back, drawing up all his strength, all his will, his entire being into keeping her. That bastard wasn't going to drag her anywhere. "You're not going to take her away from me!"

...

...

Sarutobi stiffened in his seat. He knew that aura signature anywhere — it may have been brief, but to have just an ounce of that power free even for a moment could mean trouble for anyone. He drew up his hat and signalled his hand to the right, the ANBU knew the protocol.

Sarutobi just hoped everything was okay as he left to follow the trace.

...

...

"Naruto?" Haruhi held onto him tighter.

Naruto hugged her closer. "You're safe." Whatever happened whether it was real or their wild imagination powered by the graveyard and the story or whatever supernatural, they were safe and for some freak accident, he was able to save Haruhi. "It's gone, we're safe."

Haruhi just nodded into his chest, not relenting her grip on him; which was good because he wasn't letting her go either — they just went through some weird stuff and which probably will traumatize them for a while. But of course they just couldn't stay here hugging, he didn't want to stay here longer than they already have. And he was definitely going to work on having Haruhi not partake in anything too dangerous for a while — most definitely, there would be no cemetery trips.

"We should go." Naruto pulled them up to stand. He didn't care much for packing, he was shoving things in their bag and seeing as Haruhi wasn't complaining, it was alright to do so. He just wanted to leave as fast as possible and he was pretty sure Haruhi didn't want to stay in the cemetery any longer.

"Naruto?"

Haruhi clung to Naruto quickly, bringing Naruto into defensive — but thankfully it was just the old man. The bastard shouldn't have done his shinobi tricks, they were still on edge. "What are you doing here old man?"

"Is everything okay?" the Hokage assessed them.

Naruto snorted. "Well yeah, you were late for the action but everything is fine now." Haruhi drew closer to him. "Look, we have to go now — the graveyard isn't such a great place to be." And they shouldn't have been here in the first place. He levelled Haruhi a look. "And definitely not a place we would be visiting again."

Haruhi lowered her head in understanding.

"So we're going to go back to her place now." Naruto waved the Hokage goodbye. The old man was acting a bit weird — staring at him and such...maybe he knew about the ghost? Anyway, he wasn't going to investigate. They needed to go back home.


End file.
